Players Invade Cyberpunk-Chapter 691 - 222: Whose Cake Did I Touch? Capital, You Win. (For Real) (2)

"But I heard that you use sewage from the Salinas River and recycled plastics? Do those stinking things actually become clean?"

"That's right."

Gloria unhesitatingly admitted.

"Our new recycling technology can clean up most of the contaminants from the water. The reason we chose the Salinas River as our water source is that the water sources in Night City are monopolized by other food companies that refuse to provide us clean water."

"Then let's see if the technology you speak of is as magical as you claim."

The screen behind Q-Zieg began to display the working principles of the purification technology at the Big Sur Water Plant, demonstrating how the sewage is gradually purified, packaged, and sent to market.

Halfway through, he also demonstrated a search of the batch of bottled water.

As a control experiment, the on-site staff even bought a gallon of True Water for filming.

"Now, Dr. Lafei, what do you think of this new technology from Horizon Corporation? Is it feasible, or just showmanship?"

"Absolutely impossible."

Lafei sat upright and said sternly,

"So far, we haven't seen any papers or reports on this technology in the related scientific forums..."

"Oh, oh, how interesting!"

Q-Zieg interrupted Lafei.

"Then, may I ask if True Water Corporation has published their technology in any public forums?"

"Uh..."

Lafei was stumped. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

"This..."

But Q-Zieg didn't give him time to pause and think.

"Why not upload it? Is it because you're worried other companies will find a research direction from your published papers, affecting your profits?"

"This involves patent law..."

"But you can't only emphasize such things when the patent law is in your favor."

At this moment, the staff beside them handed two already-prepared inspection reports to Q-Zieg.

On-site testing wasn't feasible, and unexpected issues could arise. Lin Miao hadn't opened the purification technology documents to military science, so they only knew the final product met quality standards. To be safe, two reports were prepared in advance.

If needed, they could switch the bottles mid-shot; after all, there's thirty seconds of broadcasting time in between.

"Uh... Could you two explain to me what it means for E. coli and Helicobacter pylori to exceed the standard?"

Lafei seemed to find an opportunity to demonstrate and immediately stood up to explain,

"The former is an opportunistic pathogen and a symbiotic bacterium naturally present in the human intestinal tract. External contact leading to infection may cause diarrhea or meningitis."

"The latter mainly thrives in the stomach, closely related to gastritis and gastric ulcers."

"These are both common food poisoning phenomena."

"So, if these two elements exceed the standard in the water, drinking it could likely cause illness, is that correct?"

"Yes."

"Then can you explain to us why a gallon of True Water, worth 99 Orokin, contains not only excessive E. coli and Helicobacter pylori but also Enterococcus? If I recall correctly, these should mainly exist in human feces, right?"

"This... this... how is that possible?"

Lafei was stunned, seemingly not expecting such a serious play from the other side.

But is this a topic you can speak about?

Are you crazy?

But Q-Zieg's teeth-gritting expression didn't seem fake because he was genuinely furious; if it weren't for his good discipline, he might have already picked up a chair and started smashing it.

True Water is the most consumed water among the upper echelons of Night City, including Q-Zieg.

Why?

Isn't it because this water is clean and expensive?

Now you tell me there's poop in the water I've been drinking?

CSNDM, I can't believe it!

(If I don't mention it, you might not know that recently, Paris Water from France's Nestlé, priced at 10 euros per bottle, was contaminated with bacteria, and it's been a year already. Don't think that being rich or elite can save you from everything. They might not even know whether what they're consuming is clean, given how professions are isolated from one another.)

"Do you think we'd falsify the inspection report?"

Q-Zieg threw the two reports onto the table. With the comparison right in front of them, even just looking at the numeric contrasts revealed the problems.

Lafei said awkwardly and helplessly,

"I'm just a physician; these matters aren't within my jurisdiction, and True Water Corporation hasn't acquired a license from our testing institution."

"Then what's within your scope of testing?"

"Mainly meat processing foods."

"Good, so let's take a look at the area you're skilled in."

As he mentioned this, Q-Zieg's face grew visibly darker and angrier.

"The information comes from two anonymous sources who respectively infiltrated Continental Foods Corporation and Full Foods Corporation's factories. These are photos and videos they personally witnessed and captured. What explanation do you have for this?"

Brother Dao wasn't the only one given an infiltration mission; there were other Stealth Department players too, but only Brother Dao went through official procedures to enter.

The appalling work environments in the photos were secondary; the key was the large mosaics so unsightly it made one avert their eyes. Videos of machines crushing workers' right hands and wrapping them into sausages, workers' clothes stained with decaying meat fibers and feces, flies and maggots wantonly frolicking on the production line, corpses soaked in oils, cockroaches and flies ground into the mince...

Photo after photo, instance after instance

Food and medicine are not the same